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Village Hall Trust AGM 2014

Threlkeld Village Hall Trust A.G.M.

7.30pm, Wednesday, 30th April, 2014

Minutes

The meeting was attended by 26 residents and visitors and was chaired by Trevor Roberts. A special welcome was extended to visitors from Patterdale. The Chairman started by explaining that the A.G.M. was as late as it was due to numerous delays in the completion of building work and the handing over of the building, then followed by the unavailability of essential members of the committee.

1. Apologies were received from Carolyn Cripps, Annette Howe, Ursula Poole, Sheila Files and David Minnikin.

2. The minutes of the previous A.G.M. held on the 28th November, 2012 were read out by the Secretary and were accepted as a true record, without further discussion.

3. The Secretary introduced the Annual Report covering the period Sept. 2012 – Sept. 2013. Numerous copies of the Report were out, available for perusal. The Secretary informed the meeting that, as the Report referred to a now distant period and also that it covered a year, the majority of which the hall was closed for the revitalisation work, it was proposed to spend minimal time on the Report. There were no dissenters. The Secretary gave a brief resume of the contents of the Report. He then thanked numerous individuals for their role in helping the village hall to move forward.

In the secretaries report he advised the meeting of the difficult and responsible position the trustees had been in, making many significant and serious decisions with regard to the creation of the ‘new hall’. He explained how the promised completion date had been dropped back several times, each time causing all the plans to be scrapped and re-thought. He also stated that there were numerous issues still be to satisfactorily resolved. The Secretary closed his report by emphasising to the meeting the time and effort put into the project by the Chairman, Trevor Roberts, and the Treasurer, Neil Beresford, and the tolerance shown by their respective wives. The Secretaries report was accepted and the Annual Report unanimously adopted. The Secretary was thanked for his report and his work.

4. The Treasurer, Neil Beresford, handed out accounts and gave a power-point presentation of the financial year 2012 – 2013 and the part year 2013 – 2014. He stated that as these periods in time had been completely different to any other periods in the hall’s history, comparisons were irrelevant. He reported that the building work was almost completed.. Hirings at the hall were increasing, but income was still relatively low due to the special rates on offer in the first two months to encourage past and new users into the Hall. The coffee shop was doing well and rent from the coffee shop was about to start coming through, all bolstering the hall’s finances. Having said that he did caution against complacency; the Trust needs to build up its cash reserves which are now at a low level. This situation will be helped by continued commitment to ongoing fund raising, “buy-a-brick” and the Grand Opening Draw, and by encouraging increased use of the Hall.

5. In closing, the Treasurer asked the meeting to authorise the Trustees to engage an Independent Examiner for the accounts. Our present accountants, Dodd and Co, had been extremely useful and given excellent advice during the revitalisation process, but they are relatively expensive and may not prove cost effective during more stable times. The meeting unanimously approved this. The Treasurer was thanked for his report and his work.

6. The Chairman gave a power point presentation which he entitled ‘Looking back – LOOKING AHEAD’ He reminded everyone of the situation the Public Rooms, as they were then called, was in in the year 2006, including the physical condition of the building, the virtually collapsed Public Room Committee, the unclear constitution dating back to 1899 and the declining public use.

In 2014 we had a £650,000 state of the art facility, a new constitution approved by the Charity Commission, and a management committee responsible as trustees. He showed images of a number of the activities now going on in the hall and stated that the hall was of greater value to the community considering that public services were declining and transport was becoming more expensive. He believed that it was necessary to use paid staff rather than relying on volunteers and because of this it was essential to generate income by promoting and using the hall. He stressed that to do this, new people were now needed to carry on the running of the hall, particularly as organisers. Wonderful accommodation and strong organisation was in place but it was time for a younger generation to step up to the plate, failure would put the work of the last 7 years in jeopardy.

7. There were no questions nor matters raised.

8. The meeting was advised that the Parish Council had appointed Roger Bragg, Carolyn Cripps and Dot Benson as Village Hall trustees. The Secretary reported that three people had been properly nominated in accordance with procedures to fill the positions to be elected by the A.G.M. They were